glutton for punishment

Oh, dear. Why do I do this to myself? {Yes, I know all you real runners out there think a 10k is a gimme race, but it's hard for some people! (mvo)}

what did you do today?

I did this with these fabulous ladies.

These are our cool timing chips. {Way better than the last one I wore, by far.}

And here we are, post-race. Aren't we awesome?

How did I do? Not awesome, but it's over, right? Give me a few days before I even think about doing a half or even another 10K. Running just might not be my thing ...

so, i did it.

My only goals were to run the whole thing and to not fall down. Check and check. I wasn't the fastest or the slowest. I came in somewhere in the middle of the pack, and I couldn't be happier about it. I loved having Matt and Maddy at the finish line waiting for me.


I don't know if I'll do 10K or a half-marathon or even another 5K at this point, but I like the way I feel when I run. It's my selfish time to recharge -- no cell phone or laundry or baby or husband to worry about for those few miles. I can just focus on my music and whatever thoughts happen to bounce around my head. I love knowing that I can run farther than I could a month ago. I love logging my runs and seeing how I've progressed and my total mileage. I love knowing that I'm doing something to improve myself. I love knowing that I'm closer to my goal of being able to grab Maddy and physically run away if I feel like we're in danger. I don't consider myself a 'runner' and maybe I never will, but I think I'll keep it up.

i got this today

and the nerves haven't stopped yet. I was half-afraid they'd tell me that I wasn't a real runner and couldn't do the race. Now I just have to get through the next two days without talking myself out of it.

do the shuffle.

Matt surprised me with this today. Apparently they had them at the 'store' at work, so he got me a silver one. I can't wait to use it. Who has suggestions for good running songs?

remember when

I was going to do this? Well, I'm only about six months behind, but I successfully completed week one on Saturday. It may be pathetic that I only ran 5 miles total during the week, but I guess that's 5 miles more than I've run in any other week in several years. A girl's gotta start somewhere. Here's to week two! In order to psych myself up to keep at it, I'm going to run this in April. I think Matt and Maddy {in her stroller} are going to do it with me!

here's a list

of things I never realized I used my abs for:

• sleeping
• walking
• sitting
• standing
  
• cooking

Thanks to this, I'm now well aware. On the bright side, I can still pick up 20-pound Maddy.

are you up for a challenge?

So, Stef had the great idea to do a 6-week push up and sit-up challenge. The goal for these is overall strength and fitness, not really losing weight. Stef's whole idea is to have support and encouragement along the way. I know it's hard for me to do anything without having some sort of accountability to someone else. Who wants in on the action? Just leave a comment here and check out the details on Stef's post. Maybe if there's enough interest, we'll set up another private blog or something to track our progress.

I'm personally going to combine it with my 30 Day Shred and/or 'couch to 5K' program. I figure my "I just had a baby" excuse has run out {now that Maddy's seven months old!} and now I just need to lose the weight!

wave runner

To help me on my fitness quest, my sisters and I went to the running store when they were in town. Mel helped me pick out these beauties. I've only worn them once, but I'm sure they helped me run faster. Now if I could just figure out the best time to run ... Matt leaves for work at 5:30 every morning and there's no way I'm getting up to go before he leaves. When he gets home from work, it's time for dinner and then we have a little family time ... So when do I run??

no more excuses

I was given a clean bill of health yesterday. I've been saying that I would go running, if only the doctor would let me. Now I don't have any excuses and actually have to do something about losing this baby weight. Enter my training schedule, stolen from Runner's World.



It's a five-week plan to run a 5K. I don't actually anticipate running a 5K in five weeks, but I could if I wanted.

should I just do it?

Jen and I might do this in October. As you can see, I'm trying to motivate myself to keep running. I know it's only a 5K and should be easy, but I'm nervous even thinking about it!

Let's go Rangers!

I love going to Rangers games. Unfortunately, with everything we've had going on lately, Matt and I haven't made it to a game this year. Until tonight. Matt's friend scored some free tickets and we were the lucky recipients of two of them. Since they were free, we expected to have bad-ish seats, but we were pleasantly surprised. We ended up down the right field line, 27 rows back, in prime foul ball territory. We had a few scares, but nothing too close. {I made sure everyone knew that if a ball came towards me, there was no way I would try to catch it. Duck and cover. Duck and cover.} We sat out in the balmy 93 degree, 85% humidity night and enjoyed the game. We got our old standbys, Lemon Chill and funnel cake {it was way too hot for cheese fries, Stef!}, watched the game {the Rangers actually won!}, and people-watched. There's always something funny about seeing a drunk man in a cowboy hat giving and entire row of fans a high five and then man-hugging the dude on the end. Oh, and all the fans do this weird arms-as-wings thing when Marlon Byrd comes up to bat. I was really confused at first and was trying to figure out how 'Angels in the Outfield' was relevant. My bad.